Douglas Gordon (Part 2): The troubles with Typhoons

Flying Officer Douglas Gordon knew it only too well. Between June and August 1944, 19 Allied squadrons—his own among them—lost hundreds of the hulking aircraft and 150 pilots, many of them due to engine or structural failure.

“She was a monster; she was just a real miserable aircraft,” said Gordon, a 95-year-old native of Lachute, Que., who survived 99 combat missions at the stick of the Hawker-built plane. He flew multiple sorties on D-Day and into the Falaise Gap with 440 (City of Ottawa) Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force.

Light aircraft carriers built in Britain during the Second World War, Magnificent and HMCS Warrior were earmarked for Canada, in anticipation of an expanded role in the Pacific. Only one carrier was required after the war ended and Warrior was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1946.

After the war, Canada signed the NATO agreement, pledged to an anti-submarine role. An aircraft carrier also increased the navy’s capability in the air defence of North America, including the Arctic, at the beginning of the Cold War. But Warrior, a Colossus-class vessel, was not designed for cold climate operations and was exchanged for the Majestic-class Magnificent in 1948.

75th Anniversary of D-DayJune 6, 2019 at 6:00 pm – 7:30 pmMarines' Memorial Club & Hotel, 609 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94102, USAOn 6 June 1944, 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces launched one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history along a 50-mile stretch of the coast of Normandy, France. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the end of WWII in Europe, Brigadier (Retd.) Roderick Macdonald MBE and Dr. Seth Givens will…